PC email program and new computer

[Fred Nerd]

Hi,
I just got a new laptop, so apart from having to migrate all emails over, it also means I want to optimise my system.
Situation is:
I have been using outlook express, with 2 separate accounts which I would like to amagamate.
I want to use either windows mail or thunderbird, or something similar. I do the occasional lessons for people so I need to know how to use the common types, so I need to be something similar all the time.
I might partition the new laptop for vista/win7 (possibly Ubuntu but that might be virtual) and if possible I want to have the same program running in both OSs and accessing and adding to the same database.

So, any tricks to moving and amagamating the Outlook express files, and what would be the best way to do what I would like to do?

Thanks a lot

Fred

[lanux128]

if you run either thunderbird or windows mail, they will be able to detect the existing accounts and prompt you to import them. but if you have the accounts in two different OE identities, then things might get a bit trickier but can be done.

[Fred Nerd]

This is the new machine I want to set it up on, so it won't detect anything.
 I presume I can find a way to amalgamate the accounts, but what I really want to know is whether I can have the one store of emails and access it from different programs on different partitions.

[MilesAhead]

Make an NTFS data partition.  You should be able to see it from both OS. Might be a good idea to have it in the middle between the 2 OS partitions to avoid the HD seeking all the way across another system partition, but for email unless you are doing mass mailing it shouldn't make that much difference where the data is.

You will probably have to change the profile folder from the default to point it to the data partition. If you go with this scheme just make sure the email client will act the same with both OS before you set it up.

If you do have a Linux then make sure you can read/write NTFS.  Otherwise a small FAT32 may be the best choice for the data partition.

[Fred Nerd]

Here's what I've done so far:
Just one OS on the new machine as yet (Vista). Put Thunderbird on it, then put the collection of Outlook express folders on a flash drive to transfer, couldn't direct Thunderbird to them, so I made up the heirachy that Outlook express had (complete with serial numbers, and changes for the different architecture) and put them there. Then Thunderbird imported them. Deleted them from the new folder, got the outlook files for the other account I had, put them in the same place, did it again.
Now I have 2 inboxes of imported, and a new one of new mail.
Dragged all the old mail into new inbox, deleted old inbox. All working well. Now I'll wait for win7....

Thanks for your help